Watching England bowl on a wearing Adelaide pitch, it was apparent that while batting might not be treacherous, there is plenty for the batsmen to think about.

The ball turns from certain spots, tempting gaps are left and when even Paul Collingwood can prove dangerous, you know you’ve got to have your wits about you. Where can you score? Where can you score safely?

Michael Clarke and Mike Hussey generally got their thinking right, but Marcus North is in first thing in the morning and it might be more difficult for him.

We wrote about how Australia are becoming depressed over at The Wisden Cricketer. We don’t mean clinically; we mean there’s an increasing tendency to dwell on the negative. The negatives get out of proportion and it skews their overall view of things, leading to poor decisions.

Marcus North has reason to dwell on the negatives because there’s been talk of dropping him for as long as anyone can remember.

North will be thinking ‘I can score here’ and ‘I could get out here’ when he surveys the field, but then he’ll also think about what it might mean should he get out. That’s counterproductive. When he’s thinking that, he’s not weighing up the field and the bowling.

The only way Marcus North can affect whether he gets dropped or not is by concentrating on the matter in hand, but that’s easier said than done.

55 Appeals

Marcus North will have precisely one ball to consider his career as Pietersen goes on to complete his hat-trick, and the match is all over by lunchtime. There will be a parade of baby badgers.
Tight But Loose has seen the vision.
I’m just filling in the unlikely details.

australia played a hobbling Katich over any other opener. It shows there is no one the selectors think is better than the ones in the playing XI. North has nothing to fear. HE can go out and fail with absolutely nothing to fear

This is fast becoming one of the most badger-heavy threads in existence. Tea and cake for everyone!

I have seen the vision – and England will wrap this test up in the first innings, if only so I can actually sleep in my bed rather than fall asleep on the couch and wake up smelling faintly of apple vodka.

It will be good to watch the battle of the part time spinners – although as JF rightly points out, it won’t last for very long with KP’s huge spinning hands.

Most of the team are stuck in the ‘denial’ phase, although a few of them look like they are hitting ‘anger’.

Look for the ‘bargaining’ to begin towards the end of the Perth test. I think it will take until day 4 of the Melbourne test to hit ‘depression’. By then the selectors will hopefully have ‘acceptance’ of the fact that most of the team need to be put to the sword. Starting with punter.

Katich when he’s fit to bat would be a good captain otherwise we could probably do worse than promote one of the more competent shield captains. Only then can the team halt the decline and start winning again.

Also, North was not the best number six batsman available to Australia when he was brought into the side. He was picked cause he bowls a bit of spin. That he’s got a few hundreds and a fair-to-decent Test record confirms our belief that there is depth to Australia’s batting pool.